Yay, I made it out to Dzityá today to attend the annual Feria Artesanal Tunich (Tunich Craft Fair). Of course, being a terrible blogger, I have no photos of the fair to show you. 🙂 It was a bit of a last minute thing with M as this afternoon ended up working for both of us. We headed out around 5:00. Dzityá is just to the northwest of Mérida, so very easy and quick to get to from my house.

This fair is an annual event that showcases local artisans and ones from other parts of Mexico, including Puebla and Michoacan. There was tons of food, insanely loud music, and rides for kids, all set within a very neat and cute little “comisario” of Mérida, which I believe means that it is technically part of the city. Don’t hold me to that, though.

There were a lot of very lovely things for sale, some just little tchotchkes you’d find in any gift store, but also lots of unique pieces. Yucatecan embroidery was definitely showcased.

My first purchase was a pair of earrings made with dried grass:

One stand was just selling mole (“chocolate sauce”) from Puebla, all of which you could all sample. I couldn’t resist a sesame mole for just $80. I will get a lot of meals from that!

My final purchase was the most important, a “cover” into which to pack my hammock to wash it in a washing machine!

This came with quite the course on how to tie the hammock into the cover to keep it from tangling.

There are detailed instructions, but the demonstration really helped!

The hammock needs to be washed at least once a week, the way bedsheets would need to be. The seller pointed out that since the hammock is safe in the case, it can be washed with other things, saving water and power. So I can throw it in with my sheets.

At one point, I decided to pick up a sorbet and chose a flavour the name of which I don’t remember and which came with chile pieces in it. It was both incredibly refreshing and unbelievably spicy — it tasted like Mexico. 🙂

M was eventually ready for dinner. I wasn’t keen on anything in particular since I’d had a big and late lunch. So when he spotted tamales, that worked for me. Can you believe I’ve never had a tamal in my whole time living in Mexico???!!!

The ones I saw up north were cooked in corn husks, but I believe these were wrapped in banana leaves:

It really doesn’t look like much, but it was quite tasty. The base was a gloppy mess of steamed masa and there was some shredded meat over top with tomato sauce. I found it a bit bland so I added that very hot green sauce you can see in the little glass above. My verdict was that the tamal was a good meal, but it’s definitely not the amazing magical dish that I’ve heard described by so many Mexicans. I know, I know, I need to try more! With our tamal, we each had a panucho, which is just like a salbut, but the tortilla is spread thinly with beans. I didn’t get a picture of this, but here is a picture of a salbut that I had a while back and, really, it’s identical, minus the beans that you wouldn’t see under the lettuce anyway:

I always forget how much I love salbutes and panuchos!

After dinner, we walked around a bit more and then headed back into Mérida so I wouldn’t have to drive after dark.

After M left, I went back to my  office and my plan to go back to work was thwarted by a dumb bat who came into my office and knocked itself out on my ceiling fan, poor thing!

I used a piece of cardboard to coax it towards the door and it finally caught a whiff of free air and took off into the night. Hope you’re okay, little fellow!

What a bizarre and very full day it’s been! I’m racing a Friday deadline so I’d better put in a really full day tomorrow!